DRY SPELL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 16 January 1928, Page 5

DRY SPELL

ON THE WEST COAST MANY OUTBREAKS OCCUR' BUSH FIRES :RAQI NG ), (By. Telegraph—Special to “Th* Mail”) GREY,MOUTH, This Day. Throughout the. Coast hush fires are burning in more or less serious proportions, and were a gale to spring up considerable damage to property would eventuate. The long spell of dry, hot weather has made the usually damp vegetation like tinder, and a carelessly dropped match or cigarette butt is all that is required to start a bush lire that will destroy many acres of famed Coastscenery. The fires may have been started by. sellers desirous of clearing bush land. Fires were reported .right- from Oliva to South Westland. At Lake Kanieri yesterday smoke obscured part of the Lake itself, as well -as the surrounding hills, and the setting sun presented a queer spectacle, appiearing as a blood red orb of lire through the haze. A sawmill at Kotuku was 'reported yesterday lo he menaced by hush fires. Molloy’s Creek mill, near Bell Hill, was destroyed. Water tanks, upon which many Coasters depend, ado becoming at a "low ebb and many of the smaller streaips and creeks are dry, and dust clouds along the roads due to the abnormally heavy motor traffic, are as dense as - the smoke from the bush fires. Therefore is presented the. unusual state of affairs of West Coasters praying for rain.